Will Hodgman

Premier of Tasmania

9 November 2017

Michael Ferguson,
Minister for Information Technology and Innovation

Launceston - Australia’s first fully connected city

Launceston is taking a national lead in digital connectivity and innovation with the roll out of the third and final stage of the new network across the city using LoRaWAN technology.

This makes Launceston the first city in Australia to achieve city-wide coverage using LoRa, and the Tamar Valley the best Internet of Thing (IoT) development ecosystem in the nation.

LoRa is a computer network technology which is long range and low power.

This allows for small devices such as sensors and trackers to be used in real world situations to enable the internet of things.

Backed by the Hodgman Liberal Government and called LoRaTAS, it enables computer sensors embedded in everyday objects, to interact with each other via the internet so they can work together to make life easier or improve how systems actually work, such as road or train networks, medical devices, or machine control.

This internationally significant achievement firmly establishes Launceston’s credentials for supporting and developing digital innovation, and has the potential to attract commercial and non-commercial investments to Tasmania such as attracting new IoT research programs or start-ups that wish to use our new LoRaTAS system.

This will encourage further growth in the IT sector and boost job prospects for skilled Tasmanians, as well as help foster our workforce of the future in digital literacy and innovation by highlighting to students digital career options.

The project uses multi-channel gateways manufactured by local company, Definium Technologies, to establish a low power, wide area communication network.

Seven gateways have already been installed across the Launceston CBD and seven more will be installed in the coming weeks to cover the George Town, West Tamar and the Meander Valley areas.

This new coverage zone across the Tamar Valley is an early success story for what started out as a project for Launceston.

The installation of the gateways across the three regional Local Government areas is significant as it establishes a LoRaWAN network of a size and purpose that is not being attempted anywhere else in Australia.

The project is a collaboration of Enterprize Tasmania, Sense-T, CSIRO’s Data61, Definium Technologies, Launceston, West Tamar, Meander Valley and George Town councils.

It is funded as an innovation jump-start project by the Hodgman Government by committing $100,000 to develop the network.